Home / Hofmeister commends Legislature for approval of new, improved school accountability system

Hofmeister commends Legislature for approval of new, improved school accountability system

Posted by SDEmedia on Thu, 04/20/2017 - 8:15pm

OKLAHOMA CITY(April 20, 2017) – Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister today praised the state Senate for approving a strong new accountability system for public schools. House Bill 1693, authored by Rep. Scott Martin and Sen. Gary Stanislawski, passed the House last month with strong bipartisan support and today was approved by the Senate on a 31-13 vote. It now heads to the Governor’s office for her signature.

Hofmeister said the bill repeals the current – and heavily criticized – school report card system with one that provides usable information for educators and gives parents and communities an accurate view of the important work of schools.

"This replaces a flawed system with one that is meaningful, valid and reliable,” she said. “It uses multiple indicators for accountability and includes a dashboard to contextualize information for each school. It is a much more robust and comprehensive system that is built on a true growth model."

The new A-F report card calculation is the result of months of collaboration between Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) staff and a 95-member task force representing educators, parents, students, higher education, CareerTech, business and community leaders, tribal nations, lawmakers and organizations advocating for children with disabilities and English-language learners.

The accountability system fulfills mandates established by the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced No Child Left Behind, and by House Bill 3218, which Gov. Fallin signed into state law last year.

The new calculation framework gives equal weight to student performance in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics as well as student growth in these subjects. Other indicators include English language proficiency assessment (ELPA) progress, graduation rate, postsecondary opportunities and chronic absenteeism.